 والله على سيدنا وحبيب قلوبنا وشفيع نفوسنا أبل قاسم محال ولا آل بيته الطيبين الطاهرين الماصومين لا سيما بقية الله روح وأرواح العالمين لتراب مقدمه الفداء اسم الله الرحمن الرحيم ربشرح لي صدري ويسر لي أمري وحلو العقدة من لساني يفقه قولي عليم يطالب says in a narration نهج البلاغة in reference to the concept we will talk about tonight of freedom he says that الله سبحانه وتعالى has made you free so do not sell yourself or anything short on that note please help me in starting tonight's topic with the first salawat in honor of the greatest man to walk this earth الحبيب المصطفى محمد the second in honor of the greatest lady to walk this earth الحورة البطولة فاطمة and the third with your loudest voices in honor of our Imam Imam صاحب العصري والزمان شاء الله as we enter this holy month in which we commemorate the greatest tragedy ever to occur on this planet a tragedy that will be replayed on the day of judgment in many narrations شاء الله the first topic that I want to look at that has a application to the 21st century and something that's always looked at in the news within our social circles is the aspect of freedom now we want to look at freedom through Karbala insha'Allah tonight and as we know freedom when we look at it let's go and type in freedom in Google you'll find three particular areas that people search more than any other the first of which is the freedom of speech the second of which is the freedom of religion and the third of which is the freedom of expression now insha'Allah we want to look at this particular aspect through the Islamic perspective tonight and through the glance of Imam Hussein on the 10th of Muharram how can we hold on to the rope of Imam Hussein when looking at a particular aspect that is so applicable on the 21st century which is freedom now insha'Allah we'll look at it in two particular stages number one the problems that occur that might make us delusional as to what is freedom and I say this and I need everyone's close attention when we get up to this particular aspect and this is the aspect of terrorism how does that apply to freedom we'll look at it in reference to the hadith that we have because there are many different types of terrorism that we will explore tonight so insha'Allah to start off we find that many people have taken freedom into their lives which are not from Islam don't believe in Islam however they've taken the grandson of the Prophet which is Imam Hussein and applied the aspect of freedom to their lives one person which is known as the father of the nation in India but known as Mahatma Gandhi he takes Imam Hussein in an aspect of freedom and the very famous lines that he says when he says if I had these 72 companions or the likes of the 72 companions of Imam Hussein I would have one freedom for my country in less than 24 hours that's one aspect however when we look at freedom we find that even in the aspect that Gandhi looked at it he find that freedom as a definition is to have or not have a lack of outside control meaning you have total freedom of what you want to do how you should think and how you should apply yourself and that's when someone looks at it they don't look at it as being a chain because freedom is outside chains and we can look at the simile which we've discussed before which is the simile of the cave and the aspect we want to look at tonight on the first level Imam Hussein tries to instill in us that yes freedom is removing the chains from you to be free is to remove the chains what are these chains that's what we'll discuss tonight how can we remove these chains when holding on to the rope of Imam Hussein Imam Hussein has a narration in Bihar al Anwar volume 68 page 156 he says when a man comes to him and he says I am of your Shi'a I am your followers I am of your Shi'a or Imam the Imam replies to him say do not be a liar I am your Shi'a he says don't be a liar why he says that Allah SWT would reply to you by saying you are a liar he says why look at this quote are the ones that hearts are pure and they are free unchained from stuff such as treason and insincerity don't call yourself Shi'a he says call yourselves a lover of Ahl al Bayt call yourself a friend of Ahl al Bayt don't you look at yourself in that aspect so freedom look at it nowadays when we research freedom on the internet when we open our channels we find that people try to instill in our thoughts that freedom is a freedom of expression we find many marches in the city that have many names and their colors are that of the rainbow when they walk everyone looks up to them saying this is freedom you can express yourself even though it's looked down because secular society allows you to and we'll discuss how this in itself we can disclose as being terrorism for them to show this and tell you this is how you should think this is how you should be this is how you should feel towards this particular aspect that we show on tv it's a strong word terrorism it's a very strong word can it apply to this aspect yes the first aspect which is terrorism which applies nowadays Imam Hussein what happened to him when he was doing or performing his Hajj he was taken out of the holy land which Allah in the Quran says that anyone that goes there has salvation no one is to harm him they went and attacked Imam Hussein even in the holy Ka'bah and they drew him out of the holy Ka'bah terrorism or not terrorism when you look at the definition of terrorism we find that it's looked at to be an unauthorized force unauthorized force whether it be violence or intimidation this outside force is looked at to be terrorism let's look at terrorism within our societies when we look at anyone outside the school of Ahl al-Bayt as we know the school of Ahl al-Bayt tell us that make sure that you question make sure that you understand make sure that you have a solid foundation where you stand so whenever someone will ask you what is your religion what do you believe in why is this Halal why do the followers of Ahl al-Bayt believe in such and such we have to have in our knowledge a solid belief that's why our school of thought says question everything so you have a solid foundation a solid understanding of everything you go to outside the school of thought of Ahl al-Bayt we might not know this but when we look at first hand examples we begin to understand how much we have of ocean of knowledge and understanding is a true meaning when Allah سبحانه وتعالى tries to teach us let's go out and learn teach yourself gain knowledge and the correct type of knowledge where does terrorism come into this the first example because terrorism people look at it as someone coming out and has some bomb and then he blows himself up yes that's one aspect of terrorism threats, danger yes what do we discuss terrorism can be looked at to achieve a political agenda now when we find in the time even of our prophets our imams we had a Khalifa at the time that stood on the prophet of the prophet of Islam by the name of Haroun al-Rashid let me try to make a close analogy of what terrorism in this aspect is Haroun al-Rashid is in a court room one person stands up and he's giving a خطبة he's starting to speak about the teachings of the prophets how you should live your lives and out of nowhere he begins with this حديث from Abu Huraira he begins to say that نبي الله موسى obviously we don't believe in this but I'm narrating to show you an example of what terrorism can be like and how we affected nowadays he gets up and says نبي موسى once upon a time so our prophet Adam and he told him are you the cause that we have been sent down from heaven so a person from Quraysh thinking well موسى how many thousands of years after Adam how can they actually come into contact what's going on so he's questioning it so he gets up from Quraysh very known very prestigious to be associated with Quraysh the origin so he gets up and he questions it he says how can موسى go with Adam or see Adam is it trying to give him analogies so he might have saw him in his dream is it that he might have saw him in عالم الرؤية in heaven how is it that he saw him to tell him that straight away look at this is where terrorism comes into application straight away what does he calls him his executioner says come bring your sword he says what's the problem he says go and cut off that person's head excuse me he says go cut off that person's head why has he done anything wrong he says he's questioning the hadith of the prophet of Islam anyone can come and fabricate that's why we have something called that's why we have chains of narrations science of hadith science in which we look at each individual within the chain to see is he reliable is he not reliable straight away look at the agendas gets up go and cut his head off he's questioning what we say nowadays when we look at ISIS when we look at terrorism don't question first hand perspective I'm telling you that's when we go to schools and I've been there for many years from kindergarten onwards we find that when they try to teach the Islamic studies you might have a question one of the questions I had was why is it that we're learning three types of wudu as in the Quran clearly states two times that you wash particularly areas and two times that you wipe the Quran is very distinct and very clear in this aspect why is it that we had to learn three types of wudu so I had a question in my mind once I thought to myself let me just ask the teacher in front of everyone so I ask the teacher why is it that we have three types of wudu are they all right the Quran says something we're not doing anything in accordance to the Quran is in what's going on straight away the teacher in front of everyone would humiliate me he says you know what you're in after school detention no question I'm not saying someone else thought this has happened to me first hand perspective you're not allowed to question don't question whatever I say take right wrong doesn't understand you don't comprehend it doesn't matter take it when ISIS was caught this is one of the narrations from a first hand perspective primary source he says I was in the jails when we captured the people from ISIS we put them in these jails we feed them but they would not speak to us why we're taking care of you they said they would not speak to anyone of the followers of Ahl al-Bayt he says what's going on why don't you speak to us one of them spoke out once what did he say he said well the reason why we don't speak towards the followers of Ahl al-Bayt is that we've been taught a particular tradition he says what's this tradition he says if you speak to a follower if you speak terrorism if you speak to a follower of Ahl al-Bayt you have to fast three days because you become impure take that into account when people are bombarding you and telling you and making you afraid and intimidating you in an aspect where you're not allowed to question you take everything that you are given how can we say that this isn't terrorism that's why it comes into perspective that the first aspect when we may overlook the aspect of freedom someone else tells us how to think how to move how to react as in of course you can listen to scholars but no once the scholar come and says well this is Islam and you have to do it whether you like it or not no you do not force someone into religion but we see forceful behavior left right and center give you another example Abu Huraira once there's a tradition that Abu Huraira comes and he goes towards رقية which was one of the girls as they say was the daughters of the prophet we do not believe that she was the daughter of the prophet she was Arabiba which was the daughter of Khadija's sister which was raised in the house of the prophet the narration said look at this generation رقية dies two years after Hijra two years after Hijra رقية dies Abu Huraira comes to Islam seven years after Hijra let's look at this aspect رقية dies two years after Hijra Abu Huraira becomes a Muslim seven years after Hijra five year gap between the death of رقية and between what the Islam of Abu Huraira there's a tradition that says and a long tradition saying the merits of the third Khalifa based on a conversation that Abu Huraira had with رقية someone comes and says well how did they meet if she was dead if she was a Muslim at the time we want to question it don't question take that's why the school of Islam comes the school of Al Bay teaches us keep your foundation strong keep your basis strong learn when we come to commemorate Imam Hussein he died so we remember the true Islam Islam was at a stage can you imagine that they would chase from one country to another the grandson of the Holy Prophet the grandson of the Holy Prophet the Prophet that brought this religion they chased it from one place to another thinking that by killing him they would attain high rank that's when the aspect of terrorism comes in this is how you should think do not question أهل البيت come and say no question every movement and make sure that every single act that you do is in the right path every single act that you do has been already treaded by the أهل البيت you are only following in their footsteps only following in their footsteps there's many other narrations when we find this aspect of intimidation sayid al-Fali has a beautiful story when he narrates in the time of Saddam in the time of Saddam there was a sayid gets up on the pulpit he sees this particular verses from the Holy Quran he says what happened the same night the gods of Saddam come and drag this particular sayid all the way towards their courts what's going on it begins to ask what's going on so the gods begin to ask this sayid he says did you or did you not because he was very heavy on the Arabic verses that's what he had he didn't have the aspect of Islam عند الله اتقاكم the best amongst you in the eyes of Allah are the most God conscious or the most pious he comes to the sayid the gods they said did you or did you not curse the Arabs on your pulpit tonight he says hold on what do you mean I've cursed the Arabs on the pulpit of Imam Hussein he says yes how have I cursed the Arabs on the pulpit of Imam Hussein he says did you or did you not say that he says is Abu Lahab an Arab or not an Arab he says he's an Arab he's from Quraish he says therefore you've cursed the Arabs did you see the aspect how they twist the words how they make what they want to be the right path the right path they twist anything in a manner in which they can prosecute you that sayid was taken because he said a verse from the holy Quran and executed is that or is not intimidation because they think that one person if they take him away they would intimidate the followers that follow in his footsteps how many times we see terrorism in the times of the Khalif is one after another times when the Ziyara of Imam Hussein was forbidden a time which they used to cut off their hands you had to give up a limb to go towards the Ziyara of Imam Hussein in a time where the Ziyara of Imam Hussein was a numerical fact that can be counted because they used to cut off their hands people would come the next cut off the next hand cut off the legs some would take their eyeballs out because there's no other limbs to cut off and that's why we have the famous tradition وَالْيَدَيْنَ اَتِيْكَ سَحْفًا سَيْدِيَا حُسَيْنْ think on that we read Allah's Salawat على محمد وآلِ محمد so the first aspect of freedom is something we need to look at meaning Imam Hussein died so we can begin to question why is it that there was Muslims that killed Muslims why is it that there was a Salah Jama'a on one side whilst they're praying those and arrows and on the other side there was also an Adhan also a Jama'a what differentiates these people from those people that's what we need to look at until now people still praise the Khalifa that killed Imam Hussein and in couple of nights we want to look at the aspect through the speech of Aba Fadl al-Abbas differentiating for us who was Yazid Imam Hussein and that's why we need to begin to question when he came to show us freedom is to give us freedom of thought freedom of expression, freedom of religion yes not the manner in which the media portrays it no the manner in which Allah سبحانه وتعالى bestowed it upon us through the Ahl al-Bayt and that's what we have to look at so the first aspect is the aspect of terrorism whether it be violence or intimidation number two an aspect we overlook that may be chaining us from freedom what is it? possessions, how? مام عليه السلام has a beautiful tradition beautiful tradition he categorizes all worshippers into three aspects بحار الأنوار 78 volume 78 page 117 he categorizes everything from worshippers into three categories the worshipper or the worshipping of the coward what's the worshipping of the coward he says most of the people lie under this the worshipping of the coward is the people that worship Allah in fee of hellfire we're scared what's the second category he says the second category of worshippers is the businessman why? he says in greed for there, for Allah is heaven I want such and such reward I want such and such reward I want such and such reward and that's what the people look at when they try to give people these bombs and say go you will have dinner with the prophet people die and they have a spoon in their pocket how ignorant can someone be let's go kill the followers of Ahl al-Bayt let's go kill the people that go towards the Ziyara of Sayyid-e Shabaab Ahl al-Jannah to go towards Jannah let's go kill the followers and that's the ignorance brothers and sisters so position is number 2 he says on the third level those two types of people that worship the third one is who he says the third is the worship of the free man how? what makes you entitled to be a free man he says the third being a free man is the one that found Allah worthy to be worshipped that's the third that worthy to be worshipped and wants to thank him in any manner does he worships him that's the aspect we have to look at how did Imam Hussein teach us this on the 10th of Muharram when we look at possessions how many people do we know that turned away from religion the biggest example when we look at is Omar ibn Sa'ad possessions over ruled his aspect of intellect and his aspect that he wants to go and fight Imam Hussein when he gets a covenant saying what do you want? I will give you he says I want ملكري he says I want the governorship of the entire at the time the Persian Peninsula the Persian Peninsula he says I want the governance of that area give me that and I am prepared to go and kill Imam Hussein I am prepared to go and kill the grandson of the Holy Prophet that brought this religion with possession at one last time I didn't even get that possession when he reads he begins to tell himself he says do I leave this particular governorship that's been given to me or do I come back with the blood stains of Hussein on my hands he says I want ملكري I want ملكري do I leave this and this is what I crave what I want أما رجع مأثوما بقتل حسيني or do I come back with the blood stains of Imam Hussein on my hands then he begins to try to make it seem better for himself to go do that particular act what does he say? he says they say that Allah has created a heaven and a hell يقولون أن الله خلق جنة ونار وغول يديني he says they say begins to tell himself that he says if this is the case after I kill Hussein and get my governorship over a period of two years I'll make repentance towards Allah سبحانه وتعالى صدقوا فيما يقولون إني أتوبوا للرحمن من سنتين so he begins to tell himself how many of us have been persuaded away from a religion because of a materialistic me Imam Ali has a beautiful statement what does he say? when a dunya comes to him he says لا رجعت لي فيه he says I have divorced you three times and there is no coming back after that particular divorce he says أمركي قصير your life is but short وخطركي كبير and your danger is grand so imagine he gives us this particular aspect that this is the dunya there was a sheikh that is a very famous tradition his name was Sheikh Atustari he was an ayatollah at the time he comes up imagine this scenario give you an aspect of positions he comes up on the pulpit once and he says to the people that were down imagine ayatollah crowd he starts over he says we teach everyone that the greatest sin is to do shirk when you look at the greatest sins they will say the greatest sins the books the first of which is shirk so he goes on the pulpit and he says I want everyone to remain and remove this idea he says I am telling him from the pulpit that I want you to do shirk and everyone is thinking what do you mean this is the greatest sin he says no no no not in the manner that you are thinking of not in the manner that you are enjoying a partner to God no he says make Allah a partner of your daily routine and daily life your heart doesn't have Allah your heart has greed for the dunya your heart wants this particular position your heart wants this particular amount of money this particular wife this particular husband he says your daily routine try to enjoin Allah in this particular routine everything that we live within our lives we don't only separate Allah subhanu wa ta'ala he says try to enjoin Allah in every act he says from that aspect but he got their attention they began to rearrange the order in which they live their life and I end on two particular rations because I have less than 5 minutes Insha'Allah with you before I end for tonight Imam Hussein on the 10th of Muharram when he is down on the ground the people begin to attack the tents what does he say let's look at this he says to them oh the Shi'a and we are going to discuss this in a couple of nights because people attribute the concept of Shi'a only towards the followers of Ahl al Bayt let's look at Imam Hussein and what he says about Shi'a he says ya Shi'a he says oh the Shi'a of Al Abu Sufyan if you do not have a religion and do not fear a day of judgment then at least be free men in your life in this dunya why? if you do not have religion meaning in a particular religion someone might have biased someone might be paid or given a couple of hadith to say do this do that so if you don't have a religion and you don't believe in a day of judgment will you be judged at least be free men why because free men don't have any bias I have this particular amount of wealth depending if I take this decision or not and that's why on the 10th of Muharram the best example that we have of a person that made that decision is why? because he was the governor of that army the person that stopped Imam Hussein the person that all every single person within that particular army said if anyone was to ask us who was the bravest amongst us we would not hesitate to say it was you they found him on that night to be in a very scared state why? and he asks him one of his companions he says why in this state he says I am questioning myself in your khayr and I see between the jannah to and now why? I am putting myself in the middle whether it's heaven or hell that I'm going towards he says if I die with Imam Hussein I see heaven but if I fight against him I see only hell and that's why we have to take that decision from tonight we have to put ourselves in that balance from tonight either we look at our عمال our actions and say we're going towards heaven or we go towards hell and if we're going towards hell and it's not the case with any of the followers that we debate we want to hold on to the rope of Imam Hussein in these 10 nights so we may gain closely towards Allah SWT and we end on this note brothers and sisters and we pray to Allah Insha'Allah through these 10 nights that he may grant us the light to see the path that we need to follow he may grant us an elevated rank in the eyes of Allah SWT in the eyes of the Imam صاحب العصر والزمان and we want to end with the blessing of صورة المباركة and we have to go towards everyone that is in need of it المؤمنين المؤمنات the living of them and the deceased and insha'Allah but before it three of your اوضى الصلاوات على محمد وقال محمد